In honor of my 100th post (yes, it’s my 100th post!) I’m going to feature one of my very favorite hiking spots ever: Ridley Creek State Park. “Ridley Creek,” as we call it, is a 2,600 acre park located in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, approximately 15 miles west of Philadelphia. It also happens to be about 2 miles from our house which makes it a very convenient place to enjoy nature while getting some exercise!
Matt and I both grew up in this area so we’ve been coming to Ridley Creek State Park with our families since long before we met one another in college. Come to think of it, we both spent SO much time here as kids that it’s actually pretty likely that we unknowingly passed each other on the bike trail or splashed around in the creek together at some point in our childhoods.
Ridley Creek features miles of secluded hiking trails, multiple family-friendly picnic areas, and a 4.5 mile paved trail. The paved trail is popular with walkers, runners, and bikers. The trail has mile-markers every tenth of a mile and the scenery along the way includes thick woods, cornfields, deserted 19th century stone houses, and, of course, Ridley Creek itself. Matt, Bailey, and I walk this trail fairly often. Most recently we went on Day 14 of my mile-a-day “Streak” and the next day I was definitely feeling the combined effects of the hilly 4.5 mile walk and my morning mile!
In addition to the paved trail, Matt and I also enjoy hiking in the much more secluded northern section of the park. This area is usually utilized by horseback riders but we started to frequent it after discovering an off-road hunter’s parking lot (1) near our house last February. The 4.25 mile trail can be a bit difficult to follow if you don’t know where you’re going but I love how sections of it makes you feel like you’re 100 miles away from civilization or, better yet, like you’ve gone back in time. In fact, if you follow the gas pipeline right-of-way up the (very steep) hill you’ll actually come across a forgotten cemetery that hails back to the 1800s. Cool!
If you’re ever in Delaware County looking for a good place to take a hike I’d definitely recommend stopping by Ridley Creek State Park. If you have been to Ridley Creek before please let me know what your favorite trail is in the comments section below! 🙂
Related Links:
- Official DCNR Map of Ridley Creek State Park
- DCNR’s Ridley Creek State Park Web Page
- Friends of Ridley Creek State Park (they have a good map of hiking trails here)
- Overview of the Park’s Hunting Hill Mansion from my favorite local news source, Media Patch
The Little GSP 
What great photos and who is the chocolate lab? I can’t wait until deer season is done up here, I mean I love going deer hunting but everyday Hank (who is to smart for his own good) goes and gets his bird and wants to go in the woods and I miss our hikes.
The chocolate lab is my mom’s dog and Bailey’s best buddy, Hershey. I did a post of on Bailey and Hershey a while ago if you’re interested: https://thelittlegsp.com/2012/06/10/our-four-legged-house-guest/
Does the deer hunting go on every day of the week in Michigan? In PA there is no hunting on Sundays (at least on public land… maybe you can hunt on private land..?) so we can always hike safely at Ridley Creek on Sundays. 🙂
In Michigan deer season starts on October 1st bow to November 14 and then rifle starts November 15 to November 31, then from December 1 to January 1 its bow again…meaning for 3 months we can’t go in the woods. There is one set of woods that people “aren’t” suppose to hunt in and it strictly for hiking but people hunt there all time.
You missed the pretty part of Michigan then! lol 🙂
I wish they had more Dock Dogs events up here so we’d get invited to something like that… at the end of his first season Remington was jumping over 21′ continuously! We have UAD which is still fun, at let’s us both be on the dock… Remi would be too excited to do it with ust one of us, we’d have to do place and release which wouldn’t get him that far of a distrance 😦
Consistently over 21′ is great! We did a UAD event a few years ago when they came to New Jersey. UAD is very different than Dockdogs but still a ton of fun. Bailey definitely enjoyed “fetch it” (on whatever the one is where they hang the toy 2′ above the water and keep moving it farther out into the pool). It was also fun to be allowed to have two of us up on the dock since we’re used to just having one handler at a time.
When we do Dockdogs Bailey is pretty good about sitting and staying at the back of the dock so one of us can throw the toy but actually we’ve found that a lot of the time Bailey actually jumps farther with the place and release technique. She’s weird though.. she jumps up and out even when the toy is already floating in the water. 🙂
I’ve been to Ridley Creek once. It was before my blogging days, so it’s not featured as an adventure. I’ll have to post about it one day, though, because we had a lot of fun! We walked the paved trail, but not the whole thing…. just part way around then part way back. It was hot and we had little ones with us.
I’d LOVE to hike to that cemetery, though! I’m weird and have a think for historic cemeteries… or historic anything, haha. I’ll have to put that trail on my list of possible future adventures!
The paved trail could definitely be a bit much for kids, especially if you go in the direction that requires you to walk up the huge hill.
The cemetery is really cool. We discovered it a few years ago when we were geocaching but I didn’t think to take any photos at the time. If you want to see someone else’s photos and info on it I recommend checking this page out: http://worldturndupsidedown.blogspot.com/2010/10/russell-cemetery-in-ridley-creek-state.html
Thanks! I’m definitely going to try to find it in the spring!
Can you tell me where I can’t fine the abandoned house?
There are several abandoned houses visible from the 4.3 mile paved Multi-Use Trail. The houses are unstable and potentially hazardous so I definitely don’t recommend actually going into them. They are cool to look at though!
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Where in the park are the little water falls located?
The falls are on the walking trail on Sycamore Mills Road, just past the entrance at Barren Road and Bishop Hollow Road.